Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-crème fraîche frosting
One of the best chocolate cakes ever!
Published originally on my blog on 13 November 2012
As with brownies, I discovered the beauty of cupcakes when I moved to the Netherlands five years ago. In Greece, they had not become quite popular yet so when I spotted a couple of cupcake shops in The Hague, I became excited and immediately smitten by their flavor, looks and extreme cuteness.
I'm not one to fawn over cutesy food and desserts, but cupcakes are just impossible to resist. Who was I to snub them? I was immediately hooked. They swiftly became my sweet treat of choice and I couldn't get enough of them. But I wanted more, I wanted to learn how to make cupcakes myself. I bought a couple of books and a cupcake pan, I visited some websites and I gave them a try.
Granted, those first two-three batches of cupcakes left a lot to be desired. My piping skills were not good enough to create those beautiful swirls everyone else seemed to have mastered and I could not for the life of me artfully place dollops of icing onto the small cakes. Nevertheless, I pressed on.
After a while, my cupcakes were presentable and before long, they were beautiful. Then, all of a sudden, I outgrew them. I was over them. It was right about the time I started writing this blog, three years ago. Sure, I still enjoyed making them however not so much for myself but mostly as gifts to friends and colleagues. People go crazy over cupcakes.
From time to time, I too get a craving for them and I have a couple of recipes that have stuck with me and that I've been faithful to for some years now. Why? Because they work every single time, because they're a huge success with anyone who has ever tried them and because they are so damn delicious.
I've been wanting to tell you about this recipe for years. It was going to be one of my first posts in this blog but alas, I totally neglected it. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-crème fraîche frosting. Heaven. That's all I want to say. That's all these are. Delicious in every sense of the word. The cake is moist with an intense cocoa flavor, fluffy, light and airy. And the frosting, well the frosting is the reason I'm posting these at all.
One of the things I dislike about cupcakes is the buttercream. When it's greasy and heavy and so incredibly sweet you feel your teeth are going to fall off or when you take one bite and you can feel your glucose levels rise. Yes, cupcakes are supposed to be sweet, but buttercream, even though I have found a couple of recipes for it that I like, is for the most part something I prefer not to frost my cupcakes with.
Instead, I love crème fraîche frostings. They're lighter, no less calories mind you but certainly more refined in taste and texture. The crème fraîche cuts through the richness of the butter and the sweetness of the sugar, balancing the flavors with its slightly tangy accent and the dark chocolate gives the cupcakes a more 'adult' feel and not that sickly sweet result. The frosting is incredibly smooth, glossy, sumptuous and intensely chocolaty.
If you ever try making a cupcake, this should be it.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate-Crème Fraîche Frosting
I know you'll be tempted to make the frosting in a stand mixer or with a hand-held mixer but don't. The frosting comes together better and more quickly in the food processor which gives it that amazing texture, gloss and shine that makes this frosting unique.
If you don't like the bitterness of 70% chocolate, choose one with 55-60% cocoa solids.
Update: In case you can't find glucose syrup, you can substitute with light corn syrup (or golden syrup, but I wouldn't recommend it as it is thinner and sweeter). In Greece, you can find glucose syrup in large supermarkets.
If you can't possibly find crème fraîche, substitute with sour cream or Greek strained yoghurt 10% fat. The result will be a little different, though, since crème fraîche is thicker, creamier and has a fuller flavor.
